Connor's Travels

Here is a piece written by Connor about his time in China.

So when Kate returned to work I headed to the West, a common theme, and enjoyed the bustling city of Chengdu. There I enjoyed the cities pace before heading out to Emei Shan, a sacred mountain. I took the bus and a cable car up like most other lazy folks and it was gorgeous at the 3000 M peak. I stayed with an American I met at the highest monastery and enjoyed meals with monks, good conversation and several return trips to the summit before returning to Chengdu. Another sidebar trip was to Kangding. This was interesting as I moved further west and stayed and relaxed at an American run hostel. I enjoyed a nice hike and some good company for a couple of days. The area is truly beautiful and eclipsed by Mt. Gongga and its river valley. Half the fun was the crazy buses, non verbal communication and the like. I was in Chengdu for a bit and made several fun friends along the way to share drinks with. I even enjoyed a visit as a guest speaker at a Chinese university for kids coming to study here which I hope will be a source of continued Chinese cultural exchange. Fun FUn Fun....

Thanks Connor! :)

Keepin' on!

Connor flew to Chengdu (capital of Sichuan province) on Sunday, while I flew back to Macau for a week of teaching. He spent a day or so in Chengdu & then hopped on a bus to Emi Shan, where he lodged at a monastery, climbed one of the most holy/spiritually significant mountains in China on a very narrow monorail the entire way up! & made a great friend from California. (Connor... if I got any of these details wrong, I am sorry!!) I met up with Connor on the Friday of that week back in Chengdu. We had a fantastic weekend - went to a football game, at some spicy sichuan food, went to the Mau statue, watched a Chinese Sichuan opera, walked around the Tibetan areas, ate Korean BBQ & went to what would have been a crazy open market (but it was closed :( I left Chengdu Sunday afternoon (... although my flight was delayed a few hours due to black rain in Macau & HK) & Connor hopped on a bus on his way to Kunming (Yunnan province).

We had a short week due the dragon boat festival, so we decided to meet Connor in Xi'an. Hong & I did the bus to Guangzhou, cab to the airport dance to take advantage of cheap flights again. I don't know if it was just the day that we arrived, or the poor timing. But it was near impossible to find a taxi & one that would use the meter. We made it to the airport with plenty of time, especially because our flight was delayed. Little did we know that right at that very moment, Connor was suffering what was supposed to be a 6 hour bus ride, ended up being about 12 hours I believe. Torture!

We successfully made it to our hostel in Xi'an & it turned out to be gorgeous!! Hong & I slept in a private double the first night with a shared bathroom & then got a triple en-suite for when Connor arrived. The hostel is in a 300+ year old Chinese style housing complex with original stone & wood furnishings. It was so cute (although quite large)! Our first day of touring, we went to the bell tower & the drum tower & wandered around the Muslim quarters in the evening. On our second day we took a local bus to the Terracotta warriors, where we spent most of the day. This was absolutely amazing!! This area is an archaeologist's dream! The first vault was by far the most spectacular as many of the warriors have been restored and have been put back into their 'original' position. On our third day, we went to see the Big Goose Pagoda, but opted out on going inside. (I think I was just being lazy!!) Our forth day was a great day. We spent it renting bikes at the top of the Xi'an city walls & biked the 14 km around. There were some amazing views of the city! That evening, we returned to the Muslim quarters & had hot pot! Mmm.. it was very tasty & the waiters were so friendly to us. We left for Zhuhai early the next morning & made the long trek back through the border gate lines into Macau (this was the most exhausting part of the whole trip, I think)!!

I have been so blessed over the past month & a half, having so many wonderful visitors to experience this part of the world with. Now that everyone's gone, I have way too much time on my hands, I don't know what to do with myself!!! Luckily, Hong & I have some time off next week, so we are going to Taipei (Taiwan) from Monday to Thursday!

I am slowly having to delete some older photos from my albums as I have maxed out my storage allowance... just in case you are wondering why they have disappeared - that is why :)

Traveler extraordinaire!

I am sure that you have all given up hope that I will write any more entries on my blog (I know that you all just LIVE for my whitty posts! haha) but I am going to surprise the HECK out of you all with this one :D

It has been such an amazing month and a half having my parents & Connor here! I thought I should fill everyone in on what we did!

First, while my parents were here we spent a few days in the incredibly huge city of Beijing. We stayed at this amazing hotel & my folks even treated us to some upgrades including free access to the lounge with happy hour, full breakfast, internet, hang out spots, etc. It was so awesome! We did the typical touristy stuff there - Great Wall (amazing!!), Forbidden Palace & Tiannamen Square, Olympic grounds, Temple of Heaven, trendy shopping districts, peking duck, and so on! There is so much to do and see in Beijing, I don't even think we scratched the surface. I feel that way with a lot of places in China - it's just too big!! We definitely took advantage of the time we had there & enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

The week after Beijing, Connor arrived with bells and whistles on (not really... that flight is deadly... he was so pooched!) I had made this awesome sign saying "Wilbur missed you" (my blow up moose that he gave me) & had the sign strung around his neck. It was perfect! & then I came to the ferry late thinking that he would take longer at customs then he did... anyways, long story short - I didn't get to stand at the waiting area looking like a crazy person with an inflatable moose :(

That weekend we took off to Hong Kong for some sight seeing. It was a fantastic weekend, jam packed with the best tourist sights in HK. Because there were three of us (Hong, Connor & I, my parents stayed in a very nice hotel), the three of us decided to get a room in a hostel than impose on Mr. Rizkalla. We got a room at the Cheung King Mansion. This place is infamous for the many hostels inside one building & they even offer the ever so classy "by the hour" rates. The outside of this place is just lined with guys trying to take you to other hostels to receive a commission. We were like bullseyes for them with our backpacks. Our hostel was ... interesting...lined floor to ceiling in bathroom tiles (everywhere!) I think that it was the most expensive place we have stayed at to date, but one that was not worth the money. I guess that's what you get in HK though - so pricey! We all went up to the Victoria Peak, rode the 360 Gondola up to the giant seated buddha, had Korean BBQ, rode the star ferry, saw the light show of HK Island, whipped through the night market, Cosway Bay bars, Lau Kwei Fung (sp??) street, etc. I always love going to HK.. it was a great weekend!

Back in Macau we took Helen & Virginia out for some Hot Pot, had a little birthday dinner for me at a Sushi restaurant & had some RNR. &... there was a little teaching in between all of these events. haha... that's what I'm here for - right?

My folks left in the morning of May 14th :( & headed back to Canada. The next day, Connor & I took off on an adventure to hopefully land in Guilin for the weekend. Flights are sometimes tricky to book here as many websites & airline companies will not accept foreign credit cards unless in person at the airport. We wanted to fly out of Guangzhou (which is about 3 hrs drive north of Macau, inside of China) so we had to just show up at the airport hoping to purchase a ticket! We had decided beforehand that even if we couldn't go, that we would still have a fabulous time in Guangzhou. (not the most exciting place in China to say the least). Connor's wonderful investigating skills managed to get us to the Guangzhou airport in the nick of time (after 1 hour waiting at the border in Macau/Zhuhai, a 3 hour bus ride from Zhuhai - Guangzhou, and a one hour cab ride to the airport!!). We purchased tickets about 45 min before the plane took off & headed to security, only to be harassed (for their own amusement we were presuming). The lovely security officials ransacked Connor's bag, only to find books & clothing, confiscated my hand sanitizer while scolding me & then mocking my response to each other, and pretty much just wasted our time. It was brutal. Anyways... that experience was not going to spoil our excitement over actually making it onto the flight!! Got to the gate & it was empty except for this one gentleman & another guy. This one guy just clung to us like static & wanted to be our new best friend. For the next journey to the plane & then from Guilin airport onto the shuttle bus - this guy creeped the crap out of Connor & I. I'm sure he was just trying to be nice.... but you don't ask strangers to rent a room with you & then proceed to ramble on about how foreigners never trust Chinese people & that we should trust him. It was just a very strange experience!

We didn't stay in Guilin for very long as we wanted to hop onto a Li River cruise ASAP & get to Yangshuo. Stayed in a very run down, eery hostel that night in Guilin & got up bright & early the next morning to get on a ferry! We didn't exactly know that you had to go to a travel agent, book a ticket beforehand & then go to the piers, so the taxi driver (very sweet lady) was so confused when she was asking if we had tickets in Chinese & we were producing absolutely nothing. She even called a friend of hers to try & speak some English to us!! So, in the end she took us to a travel agent, booked something very last minute & basically ran to catch the bus & then onto a boat. Connor was stoked to experience the Chinese tour.. it wasn't that bad, but didn't start out good! ha We apparently didn't get the 'upgrade' that everyone else on our bus did, so we got dropped off separately first. When we got to our seats, I was placed beside a lady that took up her seat & half of mine. We tried to escape outside, but these camera guys kept yelling at everyone to go back inside (we're assuming) & not to come out onto the decks (the boats were much like house boats). At this moment we were thinking it was going to be a long day. Luckily!!! We were actually aloud outside later on, had such a wonderful afternoon meeting folks that were on a business trip, drinking beers, having some lunch & getting friend by the sun :) The scenery was gorgeous & the friends that we met were great.

In Yangshuo we met some folks right away & found a nice little hostel to stay in. We were right smack in the middle of all the action, which was lovely in the day time but very loud in the evening. Thank you earplugs!! There was so much to see & do in Yangshuo, but the absolute highlight was when we rented some bikes & biked around the country side for a few hours. Wow... what an amazing day! Guilin and Yangshuo are quite popular with tourists, so with that comes a lot of hackers & pretty much everyone just trying to make an extra buck. Although it was exhausting arguing for every dollar, as they saw us & immediately thought they could rip us off, it was such a beautiful trip! This is definitely one of the must see areas of China. Our last day was spent inside the Guilin airport & exploring around it (even to the very empty airport hotel & surrounding) as we had to ensure that we were going to be able to catch flights to our respective cities. I was heading back to Macau & Connor was continuing on to Chengdu (in the Sichuan province). We spent the day researching Connor's next destination, eating food, playing some crib & catching some rays! ... oh and did I mention that we did this for about 8 hours?? We made the best of it however & ended up having a really great day.

It's about 2:20am here... so I think I will try to get some sleep tonight & continue on tomorrow :) Goodnight!

P6 English Camp

So this was the event in April that I had been dreading ever since I read about it on Geoff's blog (the fellow who came to Macau last year). I know I shouldn't have let his experience influence my own... but it sounded like it was pretty crazy last year! All I remember was that students didn't sleep, they broke things in the convent & the teachers were exhausted!!!

Hong & I didn't know the students before going on this camp, so we knew that we were in for a challenge. We all met at the school early on Monday morning, had a meeting about the camp, sent some girls home to change because they were dressed inappropriately, and waited for the bus to pick us up. During the meeting Mr. Wong (the gym teacher) was scribbling down things & pointing to students, I assumed he was writing down names, but we didn't know what he was doing.. until later.

When we first got to the camp, we split up into our colour groups (I was team Blue) & made name tags, did some ice breaker activities, etc. I could instantly see a difference with these students compared to those in Grade six in Canada. They behaved like junior high students.. attitude & all. I later found out that many of the students have failed in the previous years so some of them are as old as 15!!! In Grade six!! I had this one boy in my group (who I was warned about before... that he is 'quite naughty'), he's about 6'3'' & about 300 lbs (wait, who am I kidding, I am HORRIBLE with guessing weight... he could have been 350-375 for all I know) :).

All of the groups got together to play some large group activities... which... did not go well. For about 2 hrs Hong & I tried to play many different games to figure out what the heck these kids were going to do for 3 days... but with every activity, they were 'too cool' to participate. It was frustrating. Only the morning had passed, and we had a long while ahead of us.

The first day was quite long as we were restricted to the convent & it appeared as though everything we tried, the students didn't respond to. Near the end of the day, we set up a relay which surprisingly went very well... I think we tapped into their competitive sides. So, pretty much everything from then on involved some form of competition within their teams. That night we played pictionary, card games, etc giving points to the winning teams. While we were planning the camp, we had made up a tentative plan to keep score of the games & give a prize to the overall winning team of the camp. We weren't sure if this would work though... my Grade ones don't enjoy competitive games, they get very upset when they lose, mock losing teams, etc... so I thought this may be true of the Grade sixes as well. Turns out - they loved it!

After dinner, the students showered & got ready for bed. It was during this time that we found out why Mr. Wong was scribbling names at the meeting!! He arrived at the camp around 9pm to help with the 'naughty boys' rooms'. Immediately once he arrived, he pulled some students out of the room & set them up at a table to do some work. We initially thought they had homework for them... but turns out they were being punished for not listening during the meeting or for not going to sleep, so he made them write lines. I haven't seen anything like it! Mr. Wong was a HUGE help. He stayed in the room with the 'naughty boys' and floated in & out of the other boys' room (there was a total of about 30 boys & 12 or so girls, girls were upstairs).

We found out the next morning that the boys didn't sleep until about 1 or 2am & then some of them woke up at 5/6 am. So Mr. Wong didn't get much sleep. Before breakfast, he held a gym class for the boys & made them do their 'exercises', it was pretty funny... while the girls stumbled out of bed, showered (AGAIN!) & took an hour to do their hair! haha

There wasn't much served for breakfast, each student only had about one piece of bread with some PB on it & some fruit... so they were pretty hungry. I felt so bad for this one little boy who kept trying to sneak some more food (even though there were still some kids that had yet to eat) because he was so hungry!

We spent the day at Hac Sa beach, which I went to with my parents & Chelsea the weekend before to show them around Taipa. It was a beautiful day at the beach & the kids had a lot of fun. We BBQ some food, played some competitive games & also gave the kids some free time to roam around & come & go as they please. We got to know the students a little bit better on this day, and it was much less stressful!

That evening we were anticipating Ms Ng to come after our "Awards ceremony" to drive us back to Macau so that we could pack and get ready for Beijing. I think we were slightly eager to leave because as soon as she arrived we threw on our backpacks & waited at the door for her. ha! She told us that we would leave later... so we went and watched the movie with the kids for a bit & hung out with all of the other teachers that came that evening as well. Carlos (the assistant VP) came as well (... for a photo op only) & so we talked with him for a bit as well. & he was just so hilarious (I'm being sarcastic). He whipped out his calendar & was like 'Oh I'm running a camp in June & since you guys won't have lessons then, I would like you to run the 5 or 6 day camp with me'. My mouth dropped and I was boiling over on the inside. I did not want to do another camp. haha Technically, according to the University, we are only supposed to be working for 12 hrs/week, which is great. So this 3 day camp exceeded this by a lot - a 5 or 6 day camp????? NO thank you!!! I don't know if he was joking or not... but I sure wasn't when I kindly declined the offer. :)

We were exhausted when we got home from the camp, but eager to get on that plane to Beijing!!

Falling behind...

So I just realized that it has almost been a month since my last entry!! I am terrible!

But good news - I am posting some pictures from when my parents were here (although they are still in China... but pictures from when we did some sight-seeing in Macau), an English camp with P6, & our trip to Beijing!

Enjoy! & I will blabber about the trips soon! :)

Teacher's uniforms

So, I've been here for two months, right? This next story demonstrates how unobservant Hong & I are. haha

Once the students switched to summer uniforms (which was about a week ago) Hong & I started noticing that all of the teachers were wearing almost the exact same grey skirt. We couldn't figure out what was going on. & Then the next few days, they were all wearing the same pants and skirt. So, at our meeting on Thursday when all of the teachers were gathered in the staff room to indulge on Ms. Lao's delicious culinary skills (she made us Creme du Caramel b/c she found out that we really enjoyed it!), we noticed that they again were all wearing the same grey pants, so we finally piped up & asked about it. Turns out they have a mandatory uniform policy for the Elementary teachers. They have to wear grey bottoms & a while blouse. Huh! Who would have thought? Thank goodness we aren't forced to do this... 1. I don't own any grey pants (I kicked that habit after 4 solid years of grey pants wearing at St. Ignatius High school) & 2. I own one white blouse, which I've already managed to stain & I DID own a white golf shirt but threw it in the wash with brand new red bed sheets. Brilliant move, I know. I'm really good at getting white things dirty.

Bought tickets to the Zaia Cirque du Soleil show tonight! We go next Thursday night & we snagged third row seats :) Word on the street is that this show isn't doing so hot & there are plenty of empty seats each night, but still I can't wait!!! I've never seen a Cirque show, so I have nothing to compare.

Going to Hong Kong for the Easter weekend. I am very excited to have a little RNR away from Macau. Don't get me wrong, I really do love this city, but I need a change of scenery/ in search of other things to think about other than my Inquiry Project & teaching.... Oh no... my life as a teacher is just beginning, isn't it? Living, eating, sleeping, dreaming with teaching. Oh bother!

Allergies - who would have thought?

The last couple of days have been quite a nuisance as I am allergic to something lurking in my house. I went to the school doctor, and he believes that it's dust mites. These are apparently quite common in Macau since it's so humid here & they just looove the humidity. I'm beginning to think that I should live in a bubble for the rest of my life. There isn't much that I can do about these little critters except wash my things again (although this wouldn't get rid of them because we can only wash our things in cold water & you need hot water + a dryer to kill them), or you could use a de-humidifier, or get a vacuum & try to vacuum everything up (which we don't have one). So they next morning I washed all of my things & then went early to school. Because I had washed all of my things, I must have stirred up my new friends & inhaled them all because my eyes got so bad... I left school, I looked like a freak & it stung so bad.

I went back later for a meeting, but it was quite unbearable. They were able to scramble up a de-humidifier for us though, which was great. We then went out for dinner with Ms. Mou, and the entire time I was trying not to scratch my eyeballs out. On the way home, we went over to a Japanese home store to buy some shower curtains so that I could wrap my mattresses in plastic. I also bought a new pillow, and all together it was quite expensive, but I thought that it was going to worth it. Got home, opened up the shower curtain & realized that it was polyester... so that wasn't going to work. Went right back to the store & the lady tells us that we can't get our money back but can exchange for something else (after many confusing gestures & words). There was nothing really that we needed so we ended up buying $70 worth of toilet paper. haha - we are set!!! I went to the grocery store & found some plastic shower curtains, so I bought 2 just in case. & thank goodness I did b/c it took two to cover both of them. Thank goodness for Hong's magical present wrapping skills, I couldn't have done it without her (& I was too busy wanting to pass out/vomit from the pain). Took a couple of Benedryl's & then passed out at 8:30pm.

The doctor told me not to sleep with my comforters b/c they are probably infested & that I should have my A/C on to make the place dryer. So lastnight I had to sleep in my long johns, two hoodies (with the hoods on), wool socks, a toque, and a couple of towels to cover me. I was sooo cold! I woke up about 10 times in the night b/c I was so cold! This morning, two men from the school came to deliver the de-humidifier & some new comforters, a mattress mat, blankets & pillows. We also wanted to show them the awful noise that our toilet makes when you flush it. So we flushed it for them & of course it didn't make the noise right away, so they were probably like what the heck are these girls talking about? But when it finally did make the noise, the man said that in Macau, it's normal. It seriously sounds like the toilet wants to explode & the pipes & faucets shake & everything when it happens. It's kinda freaky.

For our last mission to get rid of these stupid bugs in my room (oh & btw, they are most likely everywhere in our appt, including in our drapes, but Hong isn't allergic to them, so she is fine), there was a whole stack of wooden pieces (for a bed) underneath my bed which were attracting handfuls of dust, so we took them all out & shoved them behind the sofas in the living room. Now I have a beautiful, clean pristine floor underneath my bed! :)

My eyes still look hideous, but I think they're getting better!

We learned some interesting things about cemeteries over dinner lastnight (& keep in mind that were discussing this over dinner!!). Tomorrow is the Ching Ming festival, and this is a time where the Chinese go to visit their ancestors. So we were talking about how Ms. Mou had her ancestors brought across the border to be placed in a cemetery in Coloane (which is a neighbouring island of Macau) instead of across the border in Mainland, because it was just too hard to visit them every year with the hundreds of thousands of people that cross the border during this time (after a certain amount, they actually close the border completely). Throughout this conversation we found out that when you pay to have your family buried, you are only paying for them to be there for 7 years. After the seven years, the body has decomposed enough so all that remains are bones. These bones are put into an urn & then you either rent out or buy a little cupboard inside of these rows & rows of walls in the cemetery. How crazy is that?? (& remember, we were eating while talking about this hahaha). But it makes so much sense. Hong & I were actually wondering & just baffled at where do they fit all of the people that die? There's no space for cemeteries! & now we know how! Another thing that I learned is that if someone has passed away in your family, then you can not visit another person's house or attend a wedding for a certain period of time (I think it was about a month), as it is believed that you would pass on this bad luck to the other families.

Ms. Mou has been so great to us. She helps us with our butchering attempts at Chinese, she always treats us to food, & she is a very good friend to have here. I definitely want to do something for people here before we go - but I just don't know what! Any ideas?